1322 PHYSIOLOGY 



hypothesis before Addison in 1855 drew attention to the coincidence of 

 degenerative destruction of these bodies with a disease which has been 

 known since that time as Addison 's disease. The three cardinal 

 symptoms of this disorder are (1) bronzing of the skin, (2) vomiting, 

 (3 ) excessive muscular weakness and prostration . The disease is almost 

 invariably fatal. Addison's observations have been amply con- 

 firmed since that time, but we are not yet in a position to account for 

 the occurrence of all these symptoms as a result of interference with 

 the cortex and medulla of the suprarenals. The experimental destruc- 

 tion or extirpation of these bodies has naturally been frequently 

 carried out. The operation always leads to the death of the animal 

 within twelve to twenty-four hours. Even when the destruction is 

 carried out by degrees it has been impossible to reproduce the bronzing 

 which is so characteristic of Addison's disease. The one symptom 

 which is observed as a result of the experimental extirpation is the 

 excessive prostration, which is attended with muscular weakness and 

 a lowered blood-pressure. In a few cases it has been found possible 

 to keep rats alive after total extirpation of these organs, but this 

 result is probably due to the frequent presence in these animals of 

 accessory suprarenals. 



In a series of experiments on frogs in which the suprarenals were 

 destroyed, Langlois found that the blood of the animals dying as a 

 result of the operation was toxic for other animals, and hastened 

 death if injected into other frogs already deprived of their supra- 

 renals. He concluded from his experiments that the main office of 

 the suprarenals was to destroy some poison especially affecting the 

 neuro-muscular system, which, in their absence, accumulates in 

 the blood and brings about death. Our views on the subject of the 

 suprarenals were completely modified by certain observations of 

 Schafer and Oliver, published in the year 1894. These observers 

 found that a watery extract or decoction of the suprarenal bodies, 

 when injected into the circulation, caused a very great rise of blood 

 pressure, brought about chiefly by constriction of all the blood-vessels 

 of the body. The active substance responsible for this rise was 

 found to be limited entirely to the medulla, infusions of the cortex 

 being without influence on the blood pressure. Later on Takamine 

 succeeded in isolating the active substance, to which he gave the 

 name of adrenalin, and since that time physiological chemists have 

 succeeded not only in determining the constitution of adrenalin but also 

 in preparing it synthetically. The constitution of adrenalin is shown 

 by^he following formula : 



HO 



HO/ -CH(OH) CH 2 NHCH 3 



